


Her - our sacrifice

by memoriesoflastwords



Category: The Hobbit (Jackson Movies), The Lord of the Rings (Movies)
Genre: Bromance, Dwarves, Elves, Epic Bromance, Epic Friendship, Friendship, Gen, Middle Earth
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-07
Updated: 2020-10-07
Packaged: 2021-03-08 02:14:31
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,068
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26878006
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/memoriesoflastwords/pseuds/memoriesoflastwords
Summary: Day 7 of fanwriter.it's Writober and I'm getting a bit tired already.Legolas and Gimli talk about the feud between their families.
Relationships: Gimli (Son of Glóin) & Legolas Greenleaf, Kíli (Tolkien)/Tauriel (Hobbit Movies), Legolas Greenleaf & Tauriel
Comments: 2
Kudos: 16
Collections: Writober di Fanwriter.it, Writober2020 di Fanwriter.it





	Her - our sacrifice

It had been a long day of riding. Despite being long used to such rhythms, as soon as they stopped and let the horses roam free, Legolas was quick at find himself a place to rest, possibly away from prying eyes and hears. But while finding his refuge for the night, the elf hadn’t considered Gimli’s presence. The dwarf had been just as fast as him in looking for a place to rest as the others took their sweet time taking care of their horses.

“Guess we’ll have to share the place or fight to the death. In order to have it for our own, you know.” the dwarf had said, sitting down, making it clear he had no intention of leaving.

Legolas, too, shared that thought. He had look around, and that place was the best for some resting, away from the drunken songs of Hobbits and Aragorn’s stories of faraway lands. He sat down, hoping the dwarf to be at least capable of being silent for a while. A few hours. A few days. Forever.

“What’s up with you and dwarves, anyway?”

Of course, he couldn’t be silent. Legolas was starting to doubt dwarves even knew what silence and peace meant, or that they could think without necessarily having to speak their mind.

He sat, leaning with his back against a rock, as his eyes wandered towards the rock. “What do you mean?”

“Exactly what I meant.” Gimli cleared his voice with a cough, then proceeded in repeating what he’d already said, slowly. “What’s up with you and dwarves?”

Legolas blinked, closed his eyes not to take in the curious image of the dwarf. He doubted he had ever heard him ask a question different from “Where’s the beer?”. Or maybe those were the Hobbits. He hadn’t been paying a lot of attention.

“Dwarves have, so far, only been capable of bringing chaos to my people.” he said, and hoped for it to be enough.

“My father Glóin would disagree.” Gimli spoke back, frowning, but Legolas could only hear his voice. “You captured them when they came. As you would have with beasts. You captured them and kept them in cages. When they left, you didn’t help. When they were fighting, you…”

“We fought by their side.”

Gimli frowned once more. “You didn’t.”

“We did. We bled with you. We changed with you. And your history never once mentioned her – our sacrifice.” Legolas opened his eyes, blinking slowly, absorbing Gimli’s confusion. “Clearly, Glóin never told you that. Dwarves, for what I know, tend to omit important matters.”

“He didn’t omit anything! My father…” Gimli growled, but Legolas was quick to get on his feet, the temper he was getting so good at holding back now easily shown.

“Your father wasn’t there as we cried your people!” Legolas found himself with closed fists, ready to hit, ready to cut his own skin with his nails as Thranduil had taught him. Control was important, for an elf. Control was everything. “Your father wasn’t there when that dwarf died. And he surely wasn’t there when she came back and was never the same.”

Gimli shut up for a while. And Legolas could see he was reasoning, almost looking in his own memory to find any hint at whatever the elf in front of him was saying. In the end, the dwarf tilted his head.

“She, who?”

Legolas didn’t want to talk about what had happened. So much time had passed, what was the point of opening back old wounds? He knew nothing, now, of her. He knew nothing of her life choices, of the roads she’d traveled. There was no point in remembering her face.

“An old friend of mine. The best of friends.” he spoke slowly, measuring his words, trying to decide what to say, what to omit. Because omitting was a sin of the dwarves, but he, too, was a sinner. He had been ever since he’d followed her to help the dwarves in their fights. In the end, he was starting to think all his mistakes came down to them. “She developed feelings for one of your kind.”

Gimli snorted. “You’re saying that as if that was the worst thing she did in her life.”

“Because it was.” Legolas didn’t miss a beat, eyes low, not showing any sing of anger if not for his hands still closed in fists. “The dwarf died, and she was there with him until his last breath. After that, she was never the same. She asked permission to leave, and once she did depart from Mirkwood, she never came back. Never let us know where she was, what she was doing.”

Silence fell and it felt like none of them would ever speak again. Not that Legolas wouldn’t have appreciated that, to some degree. He let his head slowly fall to the side, as he did when he was a child, and his father let him sit on the throne. Legolas would often fall asleep, then, head against Thranduil’s chest.

When Tauriel had left, his father had called him. Thranduil had always avoided strong feelings, as he knew what they could do to an elf. But that day, he’d told Legolas to let go, let the pain flood all his body, cry if he felt the need to. Legolas hadn’t. He had waited for the sun to go down, and, hidden in his room, had allowed a few tears to find their way out. After that day, he had never cried once.

Then why did he now recognize the feeling of water and fire at once? Why did he feel like crying? Was the memory, so blurred, enough for his body and mind to ache?

“I’m sorry for what happened to your friend.” when Gimli spoke, Legolas didn’t feel himself wanting the dwarf to stay silent. “That clearly was hard for you to go through. But maybe, if she fell in love with a dwarf…”

Legolas found himself snorting and rolling his eyes. “Just don’t.”

“Just listen.” the dwarf spoke back, getting up on his feet, looking for the elf’s eyes despite their difference in height. Legolas tilted his head just enough for him to catch his look. He looked as Gimli offered him his hand. “Maybe, if she fell in love with a dwarf, you could be friends with one.”

He was not sure he could take it yet.

**Author's Note:**

> Ever since they added Tauriel in the Hobbit movies I hoped for such a scene to be written, and it probably has, but here I am anyway.
> 
> If you'd like to support my ongoing project, consider buying a coffee at ko-fi.com/warsgospel ^^


End file.
